Looking Back
by AshMHB
Summary: Sheena sits alone and thinks about the past. But where is she now and how did she get there?


Sheena was bored. She sat in the dark thinking about things that had happenned to her. She'd not had what you'd call an average life... saving not one world but two was rather an achievement, and gaining a much better understanding of her own existance was another. But how she ended up where she was at that instant in time eluded her. 

She remembered the reunion... Lloyd and Colette returning from their ultimately failed journey round the worlds to collect all the exspheres. They'd got a whole load, but as Lloyd quite rightly said "there's no way of knowing how many more are out there". So they gave up and came home. She remembered that fun-filled night in Iselia when Genis, Presea and Raine came to visit, and they spent most of the night making fun of the mayor and the other idiots in the town. Presea being refused alcohol at the bar in the inn due to the barman not believing her age was another source of amusement. And it was that night that they made the decision to go on a reunion tour of Sylverant and Tethe'alla.

Sheena smiled and closed her eyes as she thought of the most recent chapter of her life and how it had begun. The journey began in Luin, the city they helped to rebuild. Kratos, visiting from Derris-Kharlan against his better judgement, decided to stock up on weaponry as soon as he got there ("just in case") and was dismayed to find that the weapons shop his group had helped to rebuild had fallen into a state of mild surrealism. The large powerful weapons were no longer being sold, and he had to settle for a water pistol and a stink bomb because, as the shop assistant assured him, "we've been doing a roaring trade since we started selling silly weapons"

The room was dark and had this funny musty smell about it. Kinda reminded Sheena of the smell in Presea's house the first time they visited, only nowhere near as strong. They had been in Ozette only a few weeks before, as Presea wanted to visit the grave of her father. Genis stayed with her while the rest of them went for a tour of the newly-rebuilt town. Raine still felt uncomfortable there, and the inhabitants of the inn there all looked up from their copies of the Daily Mail to fix Raine with a look that could probably kill a lesser half-elf. Sheena and Raine managed to persuade Kratos not to book a room for the night, and once Presea and Genis had finished at the grave site, they went to visit Altessa, who was only too happy to offer them accommodation, as he didn't really have too many visitors since Tabatha 'left'. That was a nice evening. The atmosphere was much less tense than Sheena recalled, probably because of the absence of Mithos and the fact that Presea was much nicer to Altessa nowadays.

Presea in general had become much more open. Her emotions seemed to be coming through occasionally, and she spent an awful lot of time with Genis. The young half-elf, despite the age difference, had become somewhat of a soulmate for Presea and had helped her to regain her humanity somewhat. One had to question his motives though when Presea would walk in after an evening with Genis with her hair down and grinning from ear to ear. But nobody ever heard her complain.

After Ozette they had dropped in on Mizuho briefly, just so that the village's inhabitants could get reaccquainted with the heroes, and particularly Lloyd who had been so good to Sheena during her duel with Kuchinawa. Kuchinawa had still not returned, but occasionally one of Mizuho's spies would report seeing him alive somewhere in Tethe'alla, so they all knew he was fine.

Before returning to Sylverant they managed to drop in on Regal in Altamira. Genis and Presea spent most of their time in the theme park before retiring to their room at night, when Raine and Kratos went out for a night in the casino. Lloyd and Colette decided to spend their time on the beach having childish fun, while Sheena sat in the sun and watched them, totally unaware that she was the centre of attention for several males who also happenned to be sharing the beach.

Ah, happy days. Sheena reminisced more, back to the time she spent going round collecting summon spirits with the others. Then she remembered visiting Izoold and thinking what a nice little village it was. Visiting Palmacosta and wondering why the place seemed so crowded. Visiting the Triet ruins and being able to laugh at Raine's mad obsession with ruins without having to worry that some of them might come alive and attack them. She remembered how she saw the two worlds in a completely different light visiting all the places she'd been before, but with more time to reflect and see them for what they are, rather than just somewhere else that needs saving. But still she had no idea why she was where she was at that moment.

A noise from the end of the room indicated that someone was on to her. She actually made a sigh of relief that she'd finally been found. She had been there for a very long time. But as soon as her 'rescuer' had arrived, they'd gone again. Sheena just decided that figures, she'd be there a very long time yet.

While touring Sylverant they had stopped in at Hima and realised that the place wasn't really worth staying there other than to admire the view. So because the wind was rather strong at the top of the mountain they had moved their base of operations for the evening to nearby Asgard. Arrival in Asgard was vaguely surreal, mainly because the inhabitants remembered Raine for her little dance on the shrine but had no idea who the rest of them were. Nobody could remember for the life of them who the 'chosen' was, or if the world was ever in danger. So they stayed the night anyway, and in one of her thoughtful moments, Sheena had ventured outside at dusk. Lloyd and Colette were sound asleep, as were Genis and Presea. Kratos and Raine had seperate rooms of course, but for some reason she could hear Raine's voice from Kratos' room, as they argued about something or other. Feeling a bit left out, Sheena wandered outside for a walk. And then it just happenned. She ran into the kids from the houses at the far end of the city playing.

The sun rose. Sheena yawned and opened her eyes. She wandered outside and looked around. One of the kids looked at her, surprised to see her. Of course, he had completely forgotten the previous evening and that they never did find her after all. Sheena wasn't sure if it was her upbringing as a ninja assassin, or the fact that the citizens of Asgard are just plain dumb, but it was that evening she discovered that she was absolutely unbeatable at hide and seek.


End file.
